ASPROCDEGUA

Asociación de Productores de Café Diferenciados y Especiales de Guatemala (ASPROCDEGUA) is a producing organization with 664 contributing members, 394 of whom have organic certification, and 90 of whom are women who participate in the group’s Manos de Mujer program. The producing members own small farms, an average of 2 hectares each, on which they plant coffee as well as other crops for diversification, including bananas, citrus fruit like oranges and lemons, avocado, guava, and cassava. The organization offers its members access to technical assistance and routinely provides services such as soil analysis, test farms, and social projects based on food security, education, and nutrition.

The women’s association is not a formal sub–co-op, but the premium earned for their Women Coffee Producers lots goes toward organic fertilizer distribution to the women farmers, among other benefits. In 2020, the premium was used to purchase dairy cows for the women, which were distributed to both augment their household nutrition and to give them better access to organic matter from which to make their own organic compost.